


Totality

by DustyForgotten



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Astrology, Astronomy, Fluff, Horoscopes, M/M, Meet-Cute, Photography
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 06:41:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13607730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustyForgotten/pseuds/DustyForgotten
Summary: Hux is an astronomer, and Kylo an astrologist. They bicker about the stars and fall in love during an eclipse.





	Totality

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lobo_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lobo_chan/gifts).



“This is once in a lifetime, dad.”

“ _ So was your birth, and I missed that. _ ”

Kylo rolls his eyes, pins the phone between his shoulder and oversized ear as he takes the key out of the ignition. Doesn’t need the radio while he’s on the phone, and he’s not about to beg for a jump in the middle of nowhere. “That wouldn’t have been once in a lifetime if you gave me a little brother, like I wanted.”

“ _ Talk to your mom. _ ” Kylo chuckles, and he can hear Han snorting on the other end of the line. “ _ I swear, the sky does a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ thing eight times a year. _ ”

“Okay, yes, there’s a solar eclipse somewhere on earth every couple of months— but this is a total eclipse. Right through the middle of the US.  _ That’s _ rare. That’s something you’ll never have the chance to see again.”

He sighs, loudly, and that’s a start.

“Just grab your welding mask and take a look at two. You’ll be impressed, I promise.”

Han grumbles. “ _ I’ll see if I can find it… _ ”

In the privacy of his own truck, Kylo grins. “Bye, dad.”

“ _ Talk to you later, Ben. _ ”

He tosses his phone to the passenger seat, checks his watch, and takes the keys. Someone’s pulled up behind him, which he only noticed in the side-mirror as he was stepping outside. Kylo squints with one hand to shield him from the sun, shouts, “Here to watch the eclipse?”

“I intend to photograph it,” he hears, before the trunk of a white sedan shuts and he can see the guy. His hair’s glossy enough to also be blinding.

“Yeah? Good luck with that.”

“You as well,” is the terse reply before he starts setting up equipment. Leaning against the cab, Kylo stares out on an unplanted field, checking his watch every two minutes and sipping a sixteen-ounce of Seven-Eleven Coke. He knows nothing about photography besides having a friend in middle school that took a class for it, but this seems serious. He’s already set a tripod up in the vague vicinity of where he wants it, unpacking a camera from one of those foam-lined custom cases, screwing on the lens, attaching it to the tripod.

“Need any help?”

“Excuse me?” he asks, camera in his hands. There’s a respectable bit of distance between them, but it’s quiet in the countryside. Just some back road with an unimpeded view, and not some park or lot packed with tourists.

“Help. Do you need any?”

“Oh, no,” the man replies, working out the zoom, “thank you for the offer.”

Kylo sighs, and makes his way to the rear of his pickup. They’re both waiting in the middle of nowhere; might as well make conversation. “How long you been into photography?” he asks, thumping down the tailgate.

“Oh, high school. It’s just a hobby.” Realizing he has Kylo’s full attention, he deigns to contribute to the conversation, smile a bit stunted. “Where are you from?”

“Just upstate. What about you?”

“A few states up.” He seems satisfied with the setup, at least until they’re a little closer to contact. He stands straight— collared shirt and khakis, looks like a dad— and leans against the hood of his car, facing his viewing partner-apparent. “What’s your name?”

“Kylo. You?”

“Hux.”

He looks like the kind of guy that would have a name like that. “So, you came a long way to see this, huh?”

“I’m actually getting paid for this trip.” At the look of confusion (and a possible touch of envy) Hux clarifies, “I’m an astronomer.”

“Oh, cool.” Kylo scoots forward, and folds his hands in his lap. “I’m really into astrology.”

He goes silent, engine he’s rested against clicking down to ambient temperature. “Well, nice speaking with you—”

“Whoa whoa, let me guess— you don’t believe it, do you?”

Hux blinks a few times too many. “I study stars for a living; I can say with certainty they have no effect on the average person.”

“What about a non-average person?” Kylo offers, as devil’s advocate. And his own.

Wrinkling his nose, Kylo notes that’s where all the lines on Hux’s face coalesce. “It lacks any scientific evidence. It’s geocentric, outdated, irrational, and a poor excuse for self-fulfilling prophecies.”

“Of course nothing’s going to happen if you expect as much.”

“Science still works whether or not you believe in it,” the photographer counters.

“Except psychology.”

He frowns at that, while Kylo smiles to his watch. They’ve still got plenty of time until totality. “You want a water?”

Hux meets his eyes, blinks with subdued surprise, and nods. One may say dumbfounded. Kylo digs in the cooler while Hux checks the camera one final time before joining him in the truck bed. He accepts the bottle of water with a perfunctory smile, and cracks it open as he prompts, “You don’t strike me as the sort of person to take interest in horoscopes.”

“I had dreads in high school.”

“That explains it.” Hux wets his lip before bringing the bottle up, pretending he’s not watching for the reaction. Testing the waters with someone you just met— do your jokes offend them, do they mind if you cuss?

He doesn’t offer a lot about himself, but he doesn’t deflect questions asked of him, so it’s just about finding the right ones. “You strike me as an AP Photography student.” Eyebrows raise, and they’re unnervingly tidy; looks like he hit the mark. “No sports, but student politics, and… debate team?”

He clucks his tongue at the last one. “Close. Class President and Theatre.”

“Oh, drama kid? Should have seen that coming.”

Hux shrugs, coy; the banter’s airy and easy, like old school friends. “When you have a pink triangle on your messenger bag, there’s really nothing for it but to take vocal lessons and audition for the Sound of Music.”

Kylo’s giddy with the revelation the cute guy’s gay. “Did you get the part?”

“Of  _ course. _ ” Quite suddenly, Hux’s pleasant grin in replaced with frown lines, and he’s hastily capping the water bottle. “I don’t know where my mind’s at; I can’t miss that shot.”

Checking his watch one more time, Kylo grabs for the eclipse viewers before hopping out of the truck bed, following Hux to where he fiddles with camera equipment. “If you’re trying to get rid of me, at least be upfront about it. No hiding behind your job.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Hux says, squinting down the viewfinder and snapping a few pictures of the Baily’s beads that have appeared, “my work is far more important than you.”

“What’s your star sign?”

“Irrelevant.”

“Oh, so Leo.” At the scoff, Kylo corrects, “Wait wait… Capricorn.”

“Lucky guess.”

“That makes us compatible.” Hux glares at him in answer. “I’m a Cancer.”

“That’s not surprising,” he casts, squinting down the viewfinder. “Here comes the money shot.”

Kylo scrambles for his eclipse viewers, and grins at the totality. “Ohhh, look at that!”

“Move,” Hux insists, picking up his tripod to move the whole rig a few paces back, “I want a shot of the shadows.”

Pushing the viewers on top of his head like a forgetful tourist, Kylo listens before even thinking about it. He holds his hand out, and watches the gaps between his fingers warp. “You wanna go out sometime?”

There’s a pause in the repetitive ticks of photography while Hux glares at Kylo and his poor choice of headband. “Whatever for?”

He shrugs. “Lunch.”

Hux considers him, from head to toe. “I’ll have a raincheck.”

Kylo nods, takes those viewers off his head because he’s sure they look ridiculous, and meanders back to the truck bed where he left his Coke.

“If you’re ever in Wisconsin, I wouldn’t mind showing you around the observatory.”

“You work for an observatory?”

“Yerkes.”

The shadows dance as they fade away, and Kylo’s too busy looking at Hux. “I think I will.”

Back in the cab, Han goes to voicemail.


End file.
